Is your library indispensable to its community? Could it use more allies?

Do people know what your library has to offer them?

Are you interested in developing more effective partnerships to help your library and your community blossom?

Are you looking to help your library get 'outside its walls', but aren't sure how to put your good intentions to their best use?

In this workshop you will learn how to partner effectively with other organizations, and to deploy your library's valuable assets - such as free community space, connections to the local economy, a sense of ownership by the community, and a level of community trust - in ways that help build strong support for the library and contribute to social capital.

Workshop Description: This fun and interactive full-day workshop will include the use of individual and group activities to help participants make the most of their libraries' assets. Participants will develop a marketing tool they can use immediately to demonstrate their library's value to everyone they meet. They'll also learn to plan effective short- and long-term partnerships.

Preliminary Course Outline

Aligning Library Services with Community Priorities and Values

The community has needs and priorities where does your library fit?

What does 'engagement' look like?

Whose job is it to engage?

Making Yourself and Your Library Visible

What do people really think of the library?

How do the words we use influence the attention we get?

Identifying and Connecting With Communities and Stakeholders

Mapping your community connections are you as 'connected' as you need to be?

You're connected, now what? Develop and hone your library's message

Pragmatic Partnering

When to partner and when not to partner

Is your partnership an 'event' or a merger and what are the implications of each?